/ Cairngorm Conditions

Was wondering if anyone had been up in the Cairngorms this weekend - particularily the area around Ben Macdui, Braeriach and Cairngorm itself. Not so much for climbing but for walking. Is the snow wet and slushy? Where's the snowline?

In reply to florence58: was out ski touring today, very variable conditions, bullet hard at top of cairngorm, patches of powder and ice on plateau. Aladdins couloir had nice powder in, but icy step in lower half makes it exciting ski descent at present, nice snow descending coire an sneachta but inevitable ski de combat lower down, can't complain with cover for December though....

In reply to Andy Nisbet: I walked up yesterday (Sunday). There was evidence of several avalanches in Sneachda with a larger one below the left side of mess of pottage. It was still windy and it rained a bit up to the corrie. There was lots of snow cover and the buttresses looked great. Alladin's mirror direct looked good. Given the forecast for worse weather in the afternoon and the avalanche risk I didn't climb anything.

However once it freezes I suspect the climbing will be great. Unfortunately I had to come home today.

I'm planning on escaping the Xmas madness tomorrow and heading for the hills. Options are either an easy climb in the Coire an t'Sneachda (Goat Track Gully maybe) or Glencoe (Inglis Clark Ridge perhaps?), or else a tramp up a Munro in the Southern Highlands.

In reply to jacobfinn: I went out for a short tour today up Glenshee. "Spring" snow at all levels, heavy slush below ~750m, still raining at 1000m. Snow from 900m upwards was firm, and even icy in places underneath a soft surface - especially where it's been exposed to the wind. It didn't freeze in Braemar last night, was cloudy/raining overnight. Skins on at the car park, loads of snow above 900m and most of the pistes are complete. Cairngorm has had significantly more snow too I believe.

Freezing level is forecast for about 900m tomorrow, I suspect the climbing above this level will be quite good, although I don't know how much snow the buttresses will have hung on to so it may have to be gullys. Will be very icy underfoot once it freezes.
HTH

Conditions were great today, walking conditions were excellent. I've rarely seen conditions in Sneachda as good pre-Christmas, especially on the lower grades. As for SAIS and "considerable", you'd have need dynamite to shift anything! We were in Loch Avon though.

Getting warmer tomorrow (Fri), before FL drops to 2500 on Sat and 1500 ft by Sunday. However, looks like wind will be vicious from Fri-Sun, so I suspect Monday would be your first realistic option for play. Looking good for next week I think.

> (In reply to Boulderdash86)
> Had a brilliant day at Sneachda today. Cold, very consolidated snow. I'd say go for it tomorrow. I walked off in the dark and it was only getting colder.

Variable snow in the corrie today, actually. I saw two guys get avalanched off Alladin's mirror early on. My own solo up 0.5 was quite slow and ponderous because of the variable snow and a few unnerving creaks underneath me! Most notable aspect today, of course, was the cold. Cairngorm Ski centre noted -7°c at their top station. So on the tops it was either that or lower. It definitely felt lower in the cold.

It was minus 8 without the wind. Bitterly cold walking over the plateau today. So much so, we almost abandoned out trip over to Loch Avon at first light. With wind chill it was close to minus 30 according to Google. Fortunately it warmed up a bit by midday, but all our layer were still worn!!!
The snow was good as long as you weren't on lee aspects sheltering from the slight subzero Cairngorm breeze, drifting snow and applied common sense ;-)
Apparently it would only take 30 minutes for frost bite on exposed skin with today's temps...

30 mins! I, err, walk in in long johns and a certain body part felt the cold today much more than ever before! If anyone saw me with hands where they should not have been that's what I was doing. Trying to avoid a trip to hospital, I'm sure it'd amuse the nurses though...

In reply to paul-1970:
Spoke to the lads avalanched off Aladdin's today - apparently swept 200m down to the coire floor. Both unharmed, and climbed Spiral Gully instead. In their own words - "Really f*cking lucky..."

I was one of the team who got avalanched off Aladdins mirror. The entire snow pack which was around a foot thick went. Luckily we were below the fall otherwise we would have been over it. However i thought the snow on the goat track certainly by the end of the day was getting ready to go aswell. Take care up there.